The NRL confirmed on Sunday night that Penrith would host Canterbury at Allianz Stadium. Had Canterbury finished in sixth spot the game would have been played at ANZ Stadium.

Griffin said he was told on Sunday morning that his side would play at Allianz Stadium should it beat Manly and jump ahead of the Bulldogs.

A Matt Moylan-inspired Panthers made sure that happened in front of the biggest crowd this year at Pepper Stadium as they racked up a fifth-straight win.

The victor of the Penrith-Canterbury clash will advance to week two of the finals and square off against either Canberra or Cronulla.

Griffin said if it was up to him the game would be played at Pepper Stadium.

"I got told this morning that the NRL won't allow a playoff here and that Allianz was our only option," Griffin said.

"I don't think ANZ was an option.

"[It's] semi final, to be honest I don't really care where we play. Obviously first choice would've been to play here but obviously the rules or the policy don't allow us to do that.

"We've just got to play where we're told I suppose."

Griffin's side enters the finals with the second-best record of any team over the back half of this season. Only the Raiders have won more games over the past three months.

But for all that good form, this is a side with a distinct lack of finals experience.

Standing in front of them is Canterbury - horribly out of form but boasting a playing roster with plenty of finals experience.

"We've obviously got a lot of new faces to finals, and there's a lot of us boys who haven't played finals so it's a new experience for them," Moylan said,

"It's exciting for those guys to finally get a shot at the finals.

"There's probably a little bit less finals experience but in saying that everyone's confident at the moment with how we're going and how we're playing.

"It's do or die from now on in so we're going to have to be on the ball. Anything can sort of happen when you're in the finals.

"You can't look too far ahead and we're looking at the Bulldogs from now on, they're our next opponent, we've got to beat them if we want to make the grand final."

Griffin said Moylan's form was one of the main reasons his side was playing so well this year.

"The best thing about him is he's playing a lot of football and he's playing at the line but he hasn't got the errors in him, he's really leading the team that way," Griffin said.

"When we open up a little bit it's controlled and it's not frivolous with the ball, he's doing a really good job.

"He's in really good shape now, he came back from a really bad injury there round four or five then went to Origin.

"Last six or seven weeks he's got to be consistent in amongst the team which I think his form plus the way he's feeling physically, he's timing his run well at the back end of the year."